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Automation and robotics

The laboratory automation and robotics sector is a high growth segment that supports the $41 billion pharmaceutical research and development market as well as the $17 billion clinical diagnostics and analytical chemistry market.

As more emphasis is placed on automation and robotic systems to perform critical and hazardous tasks in the laboratory, additional emphasis must be placed on providing adequate (synthesized and conditioned) electrical energy and power to realize the gains in productivity, safety and security this new technology promises.

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Biotechnology

Biotechnology’s broad definition is the utilization of living organisms or their products for ultimate commercial purposes. Biotechnology research and application has been practiced by human society since the beginning of recorded history in such activities as baking bread, brewing alcoholic beverages, or breeding food crops or the domestication of animals.

Biotechnology as a research and applied science finds its home, at least with the FDA, residing somewhere between pure pharmaceuticals and medical devices & diagnostics. As we have witnessed in recent years, the demarcation between the exact boundaries of the regulatory definition of whether a drug or drug discovery process is a pure pharmaceutical or a biotechnology process are blurred. Additionally, it is equally difficult to determine if the commercialized version of biotechnology as a science is truly a medical device, as in the case of therapeutically coated stents.

The industry has grown to over $23 billion in total revenue and the US has invested over $11 billion in research and development in 2001. Biotechnology is one of the most research-intensive industries in the world. It has produced over 350 biotech drug products and vaccines, a number of which are in clinical trials.

This industry segment is responsible for hundreds of medical diagnostic tests that keep the blood supply safe from the AIDS virus and detect other conditions early enough to be successfully treated. Home pregnancy tests are also biotechnology diagnostic products.

Biotechnology as a research and instrumentation intensive market truly requires that the investment in this level of research and production be protected from undesirable interrupts in electrical power quality and delivery. Franek Technologies, Inc. is at the forefront of providing the highest level of instrumentation protection with its certified Cat III-3 Laboratory Protection Systems

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Drug discovery

Drug discovery is a complex and encompassing process that generally covers the spectrum of initiating basic and applied research to develop a drug. The process continues from the initial identification of lead compounds through the primary research phase. If the research is fruitful, the lead optimization process continues through pre-clinical development. The main components of the process are:

  • Synthesis and purification
  • Animal testing
  • Institutional review boards
  • Investigational New Drug (IND) application

The cost to the sponsor of the proposed drug is a substantial investment in research, analysis, synthesis, testing and review time. Instrumentation and the resulting informatics are critical in the process and the entire investment must be protected. Clearly the application process, the instrumentation and scientific research expenses involved in drug discovery warrant that more than mere adequate prevention measures be put in-place to assure that key milestones are met in a timely manner throughout the development process. Franek Technologies, Inc. LPS products are found in the key drug discovery laboratories worldwide as one of those safeguards.

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DNA, Human Genomics and Proteomics research

In the 1920s and 1930s, the terms gene and genome first appeared with genome used in the context of denoting the complete description or tabulation of the totality of genes on all chromosomes in the cell nucleus. At that time, DNA and RNA were not defined as genetic material of all living organisms. It was not until 1944 that DNA was described and some years later that the modeling we use today to describe the double helix was adopted. In 1961 the genetic code was more completely understood, but not mapped for the human genome until nearly 30 years later.

Genomics is operationally and functionally defined. Operational genomics by definition is usually taken as the investigations into the structure and function of very large numbers of genes undertaken in a simultaneous fashion. Complex DNA sequencers and analyzers, thermal cyclers and other protein analyzers are all used in genomic analysis. The study of protein expressed patterns in organisms by definition is the proteome.

From the study of the proteome, proteomics is the name applied to the functional systematic study and analysis of specific protein sequences and protein patterns in organisms. Proteomics involves the isolation, separation, identification and functional characterization of all of the proteins in an organism.

These are all complex processes that involve PCR to separate the DNA helix and long cycle times for protein sequencing and identification. The process is intensive and critical and one that cannot be interrupted. Franek Technologies, Inc. has been involved in the mapping of the human genome project by supporting the DNA analyzers and Thermal Cyclers that were used in the sequence detection schema. We are pleased to have supported Celera Genomics with 320 LPS systems in a single lab to support their research and analysis.

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